Two points: Ms. Putt pointed out the main crux of the problem—the training of VDOT employees digging the ditches. Yes, Mr. Hill (who wrote a letter of complaint), she is so right. I have wanted to complain for years about their, and their superiors’ incompetence, or stupidity as one reader several weeks ago stated in a letter to the editor.

1. Besides the road graders grading the middle of the road and leaving a pile of rocks on the cusp of the ditches, just to fall back into the ditches, that road grader also grades everything else. Come to our road and you will see many ‘beaver houses’ of pine needles blocking the water.

2. When the ditches are dug out, the sludge is also left on the cusp of the ditch, just to fall back into the ditch within the week.

3. When the grass is cut on the roadside of the ditch, they leave the grass which also blows right back into the ditch, causing more rotten sludge back-up. (It also leaves one wondering where the shoulder is for days, causing a road hazard.)

4. Then the employees also cut the long grass on the other side of the ditch, for no visual reason, as it does not block a driver’s view, only to have the cut long grass fall right back into the ditch, creating a predictable appalling smell of rotting grass in the water for several weeks in hot weather.

5. Between digging the ditches and uselessly cutting the grass, the edge of the ditches are now weakened and the grass that is left falls into the ditch and reroots itself.

These observations of the ‘ditch digger’ VDOT employee efforts tells me there is no common sense employed here. So Mr. Hill, I, along with Ms. Putt, do indeed dare to question the inability of qualifications and training of the VDOT employee robots, beginning with their superiors being without common sense.

Second point: Ms. Putt, take all the time you need if that is the method that will get VDOT to do its job. Twenty-five minutes is hardly enough time compared to the 12-plus years we have seen these idiotic practices of blocking the ditches. They are not listening, just passing the buck as I have read in their recent past articles.

Need proof? Come out and see the horrendous condition of our ditches in Onemo.